ATI's Add-in-Card Partners Launch RADEON X550

ATI Technologies’ add-in-board partners GeCube and HIS have introduced new lineups of graphics cards powered by ATI’s unannounced RADEON X550 graphics chip. The new products are generally aimed at price-conscious users and are expected to deliver performance higher than the RADEON X300-series, but at roughly the same price.

ATI RADEON X550 graphics chip is a derivative of the RADEON X300 product, it features 4 pixel and 2 vertex pipelines, supports DirectX 9.0 capabilities and exists in two versions: with 64-bit and 128-bit memory controllers. Clock-speed of the RADEON X550 chip is projected to be 400MHz against 325MHz of the RADEON X300, whereas memory frequency is expected to be 550MHz. The visual processing unit is designed for PCI Express bus.

The latest entry-level graphics chip from ATI also supports ATI HyperMemory technology. Graphics card makers install 128MB of memory onboard of the RADEON X550-based products, but thanks to the HyperMemory, graphics processors may address up to 256MB of memory by allocating parts of system memory.

Performance of ATI RADEON X550 is expected to be generally superior compared to the RADEON X300, whereas the price is not projected to be much higher and start at as low as $59.

At press time ATI’s own web-site did not contain any information in regards the RADEON X550. No ATI representatives commented on this news-story.